Hi All,
Thank you for all of your comments, I will be collecting the car on Saturday and carrying out some checks. I was thinking I may as well share my purchasing story in case it comes in handy to any future readers like I was a couple of weeks ago.
- The car is being purchased from a private seller.
- So far I have carried out an HPI check here https://hpicheck.com/ costing £20.
- I have also asked for the VIN number of the car and found the full options ticked on the car from this website: http://bimmer.work/
- I have asked for the sellers personal Phone number (not the one on auto trader) And their address.
- Having some of their personal info I have then sent over a £500 deposit
- I have looked up and got the instant online quote for BMW Warranty here: https://www.bmw-warranty.co.uk/Start
- Ahead of my collection visit I have considered paying for an on site inspection here:https://www.clickmechanic.com/bookings/car?type=inspection then decided I would just go through the list of what they inspect myself, probably just the ones I am fussed about checking
Ahead of collection day I have sent over a list of key information I'd like to know more information about, I shouldn't have offered on the car before asking these but I got carried away as I didn't want to miss out on the sale (apparently the seller had had 7 phone calls by the following morning they listed it, believe it or not who knows, I phoned the evening it went up and they had 2 viewings booked so I jumped the queue and did a deal) In hindsight taking a breath OR following my list below might help but I had missed out on a few cars already so heart went before head.
Largely to the thanks of @Argyll_Andy who has helped me massively in PM's I have also sent over the email to the seller ahead of collection to answer and make the collection day easier
I will be following a little guide for buying privately, most of which I think we could basically do ahead of time which would be greatly appreciated and add some peace of mind. Things I am wondering and would greatly appreciate if you wouldn't mind letting me know are:
-Alloy cracks, can you have a look inside best that you can and see if any have cracks, the 19" 326 alloys are lovely but they are prone to cracking I am told by some other owners.
-Have the tyres ever been replaced or are they the same ones from new? if they have been replaced do you know roughly what milage the car was on and was it the full set changed or just particular ones? If you could send a picture of the front and rear tyre so I can see all of the information brand etc that would help
-Has the battery ever been replaced? there should be a date on the negative terminal of the battery, would you mind checking what that date is please
-How many keys do you have?
-Is there a tracker fitted? if yes is there a fob I would need for it?
-Please can you send me a photo of the service record so that I can check that out
-Do you know if any, what works have been carried out on the car, ie the adaptive M suspension can sometimes go on them. injector replacements?
-Are there any items you know of worth mentioning, scratches, dents, works the car maybe needs, lights on the dash.
-Have you carried out any works to the car yourself, if yes what were they?
-Is the car currently under any Warranty that you know of?
If anybody has anything below that they would add to the list, feel free to add them.
Hope this helps,
Many thanks,
Matt
... honestly I've made 3 phone calls this week and all 3 cars had already sold. I think the advert went up in the afternoon/eve, I rang at about 8:30 and he reckoned he had had 6 phone calls and 2 visits booked in already. A classic sales technique but from what I've found recently whilst looking to purchase I would not be surprised if he had had phone calls already. This seem like the right car to be in and I loved the Z4 I had back in 2014
)
North West Surrey
Scotland 🏴
